Trump’s megabill was designed like a Trojan Horse
Plus: There’s calls to boycott Etsy over its cringe “Alligator Alcatraz” merch
Trump’s megabill was designed like a Trojan Horse
Congress passed President Donald Trump’s megabill just in time for him to sign on Independence Day, just don’t expect lawmakers to have read it all in time.
At nearly 1,000 pages, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is definitely big, but there’s nothing aesthetically appealing about it. Scrolling on Congress.gov, it has all the visual appeal of a terms of service agreement from hell that doesn’t end, but with legislation as unpopular as this, that onerous length is not a bug.
Like terms of service, it’s clear not everyone read the OBBB to the end. “Full transparency, I did not know about this section,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene admitted last week about a provision that would have prohibited states from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years (she said had she known, she would have voted no, but luckily for her, that amendment was struck from the final version in the Senate). But can we really blame her?
Yes we can, because it’s literally her job, but researchers found 98% of study participants who signed up for a phony social network missed clauses in the terms of service that allowed the company to share their personal data with the NSA and required a first-born child for payment. Most participants probably didn’t scroll down that far. Though the terms of service in the study were written to take about 15 to 17 minutes to read, the average reading time was just 51 seconds.
“Qualitative findings suggest that participants view policies as nuisance, ignoring them to pursue the ends of digital production, without being inhibited by the means,” the study’s authors wrote. The same might be said of lawmakers and Trump’s megabill.
OBBB is estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, but with so much packed into it, from $85 million to move the NASA space shuttle Discovery from Virginia to Texas to $350 billion for mass deportations, it’s no wonder those who voted for it aren’t up to speed on all its clauses.
The bill’s size isn’t simply meant to obfuscate, it’s a function of governing in Trump’s Washington today. Trump banked on a single all-in-one bill since passing bills in Congress can get tough. Getting such a frankenbill across the finish line required lots of “pork,” though, or spending to benefit specific districts, states, or interests that can sway lawmakers on the fence.
“Do I like this bill? No, because I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests but I know that in many parts of the country there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that,” perennial swing vote Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told NBC News after voting in favor. She said she did it for Alaska. “I advocated for my state’s interests, I will continue to do that, and I will make no excuses for doing that,” she said. Other clauses buried throughout the legislation reflect the interests of other states and groups.
With so much packed into the act, the White House cherry picks what it promotes, like a social media video that uses BumpIt infomercial footage to highlight no tax on tips and overtime but leaves out the legislation’s Medicaid cuts, which breaks Trump’s promises to not cut Medicaid. It’s artificially high hair as a Trojan Horse with cuts to the social safety net hiding inside. If OBBB shares all our personal data with the NSA and requires our first-born child for payment, the White House wouldn’t post about it.
Previously in Yello:
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There’s calls to boycott Etsy over its cringe “Alligator Alcatraz” merch
Calls to boycott Etsy are growing since “Alligator Alcatraz” merch popped up on its marketplace that refers to the Trump administration’s new migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades.
The detention facility, built from Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers and temporary shelters at the site of a training airport in Miami-Dade County, is in the middle of a natural alligator habitat. It has drawn condemnation from tribal, environmental, and civil rights groups. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida called the facility “part of a broader strategy to expand the abusive mass detention machine, and in turn, criminalize and disappear members of our communities.”
It has not drawn condemnation, though, from Etsy, which claims to prohibit “content which directly or indirectly contains violent or degrading commentary” against people over traits like their race, religion, gender, or immigration status. The availability of “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise on the site has inspired calls for boycotts on social media that have received thousands of reactions. Etsy did not respond to a request for comment.
Etsy’s terms of service around discrimination and hateful content are broad, with the term indirectly allowing for enforcement against veiled, coded, and subtle violations. Considering the derisive and violent nature of how Trump and his supporters have spoken about the facility, “Alligator Alcatraz” seems to fall under the policy’s generous umbrella. When Trump toured the detention facility last week, he joked that detainees would learn “how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.”
Much of Etsy’s “Alligator Alcatraz” merch has the look of A.I.-generated slop, which is at odds with the company’s recent push to highlight human-made products. And it’s not clear how much of an audience there is for this stuff. A 53% majority of U.S. adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, according to a Yahoo/YouGov poll, and Etsy pages for “Alligator Alcatraz” products don’t suggest robust sales, with low views and few notes indicating products had been purchased or put into carts. There’s also competition, with official Florida Republican Party “Alligator Alcatraz” merch and more options on Amazon.
It’s clear Etsy understands the art of political subtly when it comes to the left- and right-leaning political categories it organizes for T-shirts with quiet, hidden political messages. For merch celebrating Trump’s new detention facility, though, that understanding suddenly seems lost.
Have you seen this?
“Trump Effect” website takes credit for Biden-era investments in the U.S. A Reuters review found that just under half of the claimed spending on the website—totaling more than $1.3 trillion—originated under former President Joe Biden or represented routine spending repackaged to promote domestic investments. [Fast Company]
How the Trump show outwits reality. One thing you have to acknowledge about Trump is that he understands the press so much better than the press understands him. He structures his presidential wins on the two-week theory – that’s the amount of time he knows that the news cycle, and the screen-addled attention of the American public, can be bothered to pay attention to any given topic. [Tina Brown]
America Party. It’s one year to go until America turns 250 years old, Trump said he’s planning a UFC fight on the White House grounds to celebrate, and Elon Musk is planning an America Party. [Whig]
History of political design
"Get Into America" poster (1974). This poster of Abraham Lincoln, who some have said looks the way root beer tastes, was produced by the U.S. Government Printing Office ahead of the American Bicentennial.
A portion of this newsletter was first published in Fast Company.
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